The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said it was trying to find out from its mission in Dubai about how Dawood Ibrahim’s aide Mohamed Farooq alias Farooq Takla got a passport and renewed it, PTI reported.
Takla – wanted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case – was extradited from Dubai and brought to India on Thursday morning. After the Central Bureau of Investigation interrogated him, a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities court in Mumbai remanded him in the agency’s custody till March 19.
“It is very clear that he is a fugitive who was wanted by the government of India,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a press briefing on Friday. “We had shared this information with the UAE government, and we were pursuing this matter with them.”
When asked about reports that Takla got his passport with the help of a Union minister, Kumar said he would not speculate and reiterated that the ministry will get details about when Takla applied for his passport.
The Interpol had issued a red corner notice against Takla in 1995 at the request of Indian authorities. The notice is intended to locate and provisionally arrest individuals pending extradition. According to the notice, Farooq faces charges of criminal conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder and voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means.
The Mumbai serial blasts
On March 12, 1993, 257 people were killed and more than 700 injured as 12 powerful blasts ripped through Mumbai. Orchestrated by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, the blasts followed the communal riots in Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993 after the Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. At least 900 people were killed in the riots that followed and more than 2,000 were injured – a majority of them Muslims.
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